From the Vault: 1980s-era city skyline

I’m always on the lookout for interesting photos for this blog while I’m digging through the files for research purposes. I came across this one loose in a stack of other downtown photos:

The photo is not labeled and the only time I could trace one of the date stamps to an actual publication (June 1987), it was used generically as a skyline photo. However, one of the stamps is from June 1980, and I think it is at least that old.

My mother will tell you I am spatially challenged and should never be trusted to be the navigator to get anyone anywhere. That being said, the photo is from a side of downtown that I don’t know well, so I’m still not exactly sure where it was taken. However, I think it may be from northwest of downtown on I-35 near the intersection with I-10 (but correct me if I’m wrong). There are signs under one of the bridges directing drivers to I-10 and 90 East.

Also, Newt Godfree Chevrolet is visible to the far left, and I think left of that is a Firestone. Both were on N. Main Ave. Right of center is the old Stowers Building which was demolished to make way for a Frost Bank building in Feb. 1982. To the left, I believe is the Rand Building, which Frost also wanted to demolish, but ended up selling to the Conservation Society in 1981 (that story is recounted in Lewis Fisher’s “Saving San Antonio”; perhaps you’ll see more in a future blog entry). Frost also at that time was renovating the old SASA building, the dark building to the right of the Stowers Building. All of these buildings were/are around Houston St. and Main Ave. Given that the Tower of the Americas is behind them and the Tower Life Building can be seen to the right of that, the photo has to be northwest looking southeast.